


crest barrel break

by HearJessRoar



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: Everyone Is Alive, F/M, Good job boys, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Misunderstandings, and manage to muck it up in two completely different ways, surfer reggie, surfer willie, theyre surfer buddies your honor, when reggie and alex both try to be a good friend, willie and alex both have a sweet tooth and yes that is relevant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 22:22:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29848386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HearJessRoar/pseuds/HearJessRoar
Summary: Reggie makes a new surfer friend at the beach. Alex is pretty sure Reggie's in love with the guy. Good for him, honestly.Too bad Willie's the prettiest, flirtiest person Alex has ever met, and now he's gotta shove that crush way,waydown for Reggie's sake.
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters & Willie, Alex Mercer & Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 57
Kudos: 293
Collections: Willex Stories! (JATP)





	crest barrel break

It's late in the evening when Reggie finally returns to the studio, his hair dried wavy with saltwater and a dopey grin in his face.

His yellow surfboard sits neatly in the bed of his old Chevy, carefully positioned around the rusted out hole near the driver’s side wheel well.

He runs a hand through his hair as he pushes the door open, smile never straying even as he ducks the drumstick launched at his head.

It hits the door with a wooden _thunk_ and clatters to the floor unceremoniously.

Alex looks horrified, frozen in his steps halfway across the studio, hand to his mouth. “Dude, I am _so_ sorry, that wasn’t aimed at you,” he pauses. “It wasn’t aimed at _anyone_ actually. Sorry, again.”

Reggie raises his eyebrows and picks up the stick, giving it a twirl around his fingers. “Yeah, usually I get a warning before I have to dodge these. Rough day?”

Alex groans and flops facefirst onto the couch. “My parents want to ‘have a talk with me’ tonight,” he puts up air quotes without pulling his face out of the cushions. “Which is code for introducing me to one of the girls from church, or the daughter of someone from book club, or some poor random passerby from the street, or worse, ask me why I’m not dating Julie-”

“Luke beat you to it, obviously.”

Alex nods into the sofa. “Luke beat me to it,” he repeats solemnly.

“And you’re gay.”

Alex snorts. “That too.”

He finally resurfaces as Reggie claps a hand down on his calf to make him scooch up so he can sit. He tosses the drumstick onto the coffee table."Where are the lovebirds, anyway?"

Alex rolls onto his back and drops his legs across Reggie’s lap. "Dinner with Ray."

Reggie makes a wounded noise. "Dinner with _my_ dad, and I'm not even invited?"

"He's not your dad-"

"Ignoring you-"

"-and you would have been invited if you were here. Where _have_ you been today?”

Reggie drums on Alex’s shins. His smile is starting to make his face ache, and he hopes he doesn’t look as deranged as he feels. “I went to the beach.”

Alex gives him a weird look and covers his eyes with his arm. “And that look on your face is just because you caught some _gnarly waves, dude-_ OW!”

Reggie lets go of where he’s pinched the tender muscle of Alex’s calf. “Don’t mock what you don't understand, you jerk. And no,” he says, untying Alex’s sneaker absently. “I made a friend.”

“Retie my shoe, what the hell, Reg?” Alex digs the sneaker into Reggie’s thigh. “So you made a friend. What kind of friend?”

Reggie double knots the bow, just to be a dick. “He’s really cool, Alex. He knows all the best spots away from the crowds so you don’t run anyone down, and we got lunch. He’s just. He’s so cool.”

He isn’t describing this very well, and sometimes his words get all tangled up, but he really wants to get across how neat his new friend is, and he really, _really_ wants to entice Alex into meeting him, because he’s got this feeling in his soul that Alex and Willie would get on like a house on fire.

Call it surfer intuition.

~

Alex, for one, is a little proud that Reggie has his first real grown up crush on a guy.

For the past week, all he’s heard about this mysterious _Willie_ is about how nice and funny and _cool_ he is, with his long hair and his tattoos and his knowledge of the best pizza places away from the boardwalk.

Seriously, it’s like every time Alex sees Reggie, all he can do is talk about Willie.

It’s cute.

And Alex loves that Reggie is comfortable with him and trusts him with this information, because he’s almost positive he hasn’t mentioned Willie to either Luke or Julie.

So he lets Reggie chat his ear off whenever they have a moment between rehearsing new songs and watching old movies on Julie’s laptop and convincing Ray that none of them have been sleeping in the studio when there’s a perfectly good guest room inside the house.

But he thinks that Reggie might be nervous around this guy, which is fair, because Alex is pretty sure this is the first time Reggie has ever gone beyond being a natural flirt with anyone. And Reggie keeps asking Alex to go with him to the beach, and Reggie knows that Alex doesn’t surf, and he’s not a big fan of sand, and he’s pretty sure Reggie wants him to act as a buffer or something, but the thing is that he _knows_ Reggie can handle this on his own and if Alex lets Reggie use him as a crutch then he’ll never get anywhere with this guy, and Alex doesn’t want to spend the next ten years listening to Reggie moan and groan about The One Who Got Away.

So he politely refuses, and every time, Reggie looks more and more manic.

His eye has started twitching at all of Alex’s excuses, and it’s starting to creep him out, honestly.

~

Willie drains the last dregs of his orange soda and tosses the can into the trash barrel several feet away. “It’s okay, man. If he doesn’t wanna meet me, you can’t force him to,” he flicks his hair over his shoulder and presses the heels of his hands to the top of the bench where he’s perched. “Dunno if I _wanna_ meet someone this hellbent on not meeting me, honestly.”

Reggie shakes his head, one leg up on the bench, chin resting on his knee. “No. He’d like you, _so much_ , dude. And you’d like him too.”

~

He thinks that Reggie has finally gotten over his nerves with Willie, because he’s stopped asking Alex to go to the beach with him at least.

And it’s been forever since they’ve all gone out to hang out, so he’s glad that Reggie suggested reinstating their Saturday movie afternoons. There’s this new superhero movie that’s supposed to be really good that just released, and Alex is excited for the first time in awhile to go to the theater.

He’s never been one of those people who could just show up at the theater five minutes before showtime. He needs to be there with tickets in hand at least half an hour before the movie starts, and his friends know that.

So here he is, outside the Megaplex, his leg bouncing nervously as he sits on the bench, and his friends nowhere in sight, with twenty minutes til previews.

He bites his thumbnail, and squints down at his phone in the bright afternoon sun.

There’s texts from both Julie and Luke, and Alex’s stomach drops.

_luke got sick on the way out the door. im so sorry alex. have fun without us tho k?_

And from Luke, _dude do NOT eat the hotdogs that have been in the studio fridge forever_

Well. There went their plans.

And any respect he still had for Luke’s intelligence.

Alex sighs, and resigns himself to waiting another weekend to see the movie, because while he doesn’t mind seeing movies alone, he really does prefer to go with his friends.

A new notification pops up, and he’s sure that it’s Reggie telling him they’ll reschedule, but no.

_still on for the movie right? bc im on my way rn_

His spirits lift back up, and while he’s still anxious that Reggie is cutting it close, at least the afternoon won’t be a total bust.

The only downside is that usually, when they go to the movies, he shares a popcorn bucket with Julie, because she also believes that peanut M&Ms belong in the popcorn.

Reggie does not.

But that’s okay, he can live without peanut M&Ms in his popcorn for one movie.

Alex checks the time again. Fifteen minutes, and his leg bouncing just gets more harried.

He should go in and get snacks before Reggie gets here, that way they wouldn’t have to waste time in line that they could be using to find good seats instead. And he knows Reggie’s go-to movie treats, it’s not like he’d be playing a guessing game and end up disappointing his best friend by getting him the wrong kind of gummy worms-

His train of thought derails entirely as someone falls across his vision.

Quite literally.

There’s a loud noise and then a yelp and a swear, and suddenly, there’s a guy splayed out in the road in front of him, skateboard still rolling. Alex doesn’t have time to think.

He’s on his feet, hauling the guy out of the street, hands hooked under his armpits as he drags him back to the sidewalk. He makes sure he’s situated with his back against the legs of the bench, safely out of harm’s way before he turns to scoop the skateboard out of the road as well.

“Dude, holy shit, are you alright?”

The guy looks dazed as he looks at him, and Alex notes that his helmet doesn’t have a scratch on it, and he hopes that means he didn’t hit his head when he went down. Alex waves a hand in front of his face.

“Hey? You okay?”

“...got distracted,” the guy mutters, reaching up to unsnap his helmet clip. “Slipped off the curb.” he shakes his head as he takes off the helmet, and shakes loose long, dark locks at the same time.

It’s a bad moment for Alex to realize that the guy he just yanked around by the arms is _very pretty_.

Because the guy winces, and as he sets the helmet aside, he brings up his leg to inspect it. Alex takes in a sharp gasp through his nose. It’s not a scrape any worse than any other skinned knee he’s ever seen, but he’s still sympathetic, because grown up or not, a skinned knee still _hurts_ when exposed to the open air.

Alex digs for the bottle of water he'd planned on sneaking into the theater in his jacket pocket, and cracks the seal.

He doesn't have anything to pour it onto, so he just gestures with it. His new patient nods, hesitantly, and Alex tips it slowly over his knee.

The guy hisses through his teeth and Alex mutters apologies under his breath, fishing into his fanny pack. He comes up with a pack of tissues he completely forgot about until this second, and several sizes of bandaids as this beautiful stranger’s eyes grow comically wide, eyebrows creeping up his forehead.

"You keep a whole pharmacy in there?" He asks, amusement in his voice, and Alex can feel himself blushing. He fumbles with the tissues and manages to pull out three at once by accident. He crumples all of them up anyway and dabs the water away as gently as he can, noting the intricate bouquet of colorful wildflowers tattooed up the side of his calf.

“My friends are kind of hazards to themselves,” he says, tearing open one of the large bandages. “I was never a Boy Scout, but with them, you always gotta be prepared.”

“That’s sweet of you- _ow_ -” He grimaces as Alex seals the adhesive part against his skin, unavoidably pressing down on the raw injury in the process.

“Sorry,” he says again, hoping he can establish how sincere his apology is by eye contact alone.

~

 _oh shit,_ Willie thinks, his heart pounding in his chest. _it’s like he’s got the ocean in his eyes_

~

Look, Alex isn’t _stupid_ , he knows when someone is checking him out.

Sometimes.

He thinks.

But like, this very attractive boy just tucked a lock of hair behind his right ear and revealed a gold hoop threaded through his earlobe, and while that’s kind of an old fashioned way to ask, he’s pretty sure that he just got asked if he likes boys.

Dear god, yes, yes he does.

~

 _forget whoever Reggie wanted me to meet, who are_ **you?** , Willie’s brain frizzes as this blonde with the killer jawline smiles at him shyly.

~

Alex realizes that he’s maybe been staring like a creep at this guy with a weird smile on his face for a moment too long, and he clears his throat. “I, uh, I’m-”

“Hey!” Reggie’s voice comes from behind the bench, and they both startle as he jogs up, his boots making thick thudding noises on the pavement. Alex looks up at him, trying to get **NOT NOW REG** to blare like a neon sign across his face, but it must not work, because Reggie peers over the bench to the guy on the ground next to him, and grins.

“Willie, you made it! I see you’ve met Alex already,”

And Alex’s heart sinks.

_fuck._

~

 _oh hell YES,_ Willie’s heart soars. _This_ was the mysterious Alex, this adorable dude with the amazing eyes and the cute blush? Reggie didn’t do him justice, he looks like he walked out of a painting. He was already the reason Willie had jumped the curb into traffic, the sun catching that hair and gilding it golden like a halo as he sat on the bench; he's pretty sure anyone would have been distracted if Apollo himself had appeared before them like _that_.

His day had nowhere to go but up.

~

 _This_ was Willie, with the long hair and the tattoos and the skateboard and yeah okay Alex thinks he maybe should have seen this coming because why would anything in his life ever go his way for a change? And _of course_ Reggie would have a crush on this guy, because he’s possibly the prettiest person Alex has ever seen in his life.

Of-freakin’-course. Call that rock bottom.

Dammit.

~

Luke looks up at Julie. Or, more accurately, he looks up at the book cover blocking her face from his view as he’s using her leg as a pillow. He fiddles with the Slinky he’s been playing with in the noiselessness of the studio.

“Hey, how come if _I’m_ supposed to be sick, you stayed home too?” he asks, the quiet methodical noise of the Slinky in his hands the only sound. Julie tips the book down to give him a weird look over the top of it.

“I wouldn’t leave you by yourself if you were really sick, you dope. We’re dating.” she says, rolling her eyes.

“We’re dating?” Luke asks incredulously. Julie drops the book on his face. “Ow-I just like to hear you say it, Jules, geez,”

She picks up her book, leans over and presses a kiss to his forehead, her hair brushing over his face as Luke grins. “I like saying it.”

~

Reggie can’t help the grin on his face as he looks down at the pair of them, leaning with both arms on the back of the bench.

This couldn't have worked out better, he thinks. 

And he'd had this brilliant idea yesterday, sitting astride his board with his legs thigh deep in the ocean, watching Willie paddle out to hopefully catch a barrel on that cherry red surfboard of his.

If Alex wouldn't go to the beach, Reggie would bring the beach to him.

And by the looks on both their faces, staring at each other with significant expressions he could see even from halfway down the block , Reggie was completely correct about how much they'd like each other.

Personally, Reggie thinks he's a genius.

Julie and Luke were absolutely game to ditch the movie when he'd told them about inviting Willie. And all he’d had to do was show up late, because he knew Alex would be waiting out front for him, and Willie would get there first.

He didn’t count on whatever happened before he got here though. Willie’s got one of Alex’s emergency bandages slapped to his knee, and he didn’t think he’d find them on the ground, but whatever, this works.

Except for some reason Alex suddenly looks like Reggie smacked him.

~

The movie starts in five minutes, and there’s no way they’ll get decent seats at this point, but Alex can’t bring himself to care with the heavy feeling in his chest.

And it only gets worse when Reggie says, “Hey, you guys get the snacks, and I’ll go find some seats. Alex, you know what I want, right?”

 _Yeah,_ Alex thinks miserably, _you want Willie._

But he stands in line next to Willie anyway, and resigns himself to not only having to sit through a movie without his snack, but while sitting two seats down from this guy who crash landed into his life with a charming smile and kind eyes, while ignoring that same guy's entire existence.

Because even though he’s pretty sure that Willie was checking him out, he can’t do that to Reggie. There’s an unspoken code to not pursue your friend’s crush, or something like that. He can’t say he’s ever been in this situation before, honestly.

And the way that Reggie hasn’t shut up about this guy? He’s got it _bad_. Alex refuses to be someone who could hurt his best friend that way.

No matter how drop dead _gorgeous_ this surfer slash skater boy is, especially when he’s studying the menu board with his bottom lip between his teeth, hair still tangled despite the fact that he’s been trying to sort it out every few moments with his fingers like a nervous tic, carrying his board by the truck with his free hand and-

Alex looks away right as Willie turns his head. “Do you think Reggie would get his feelings hurt if I get my own popcorn?”

He furrows his brows, gives him a weird look. “Doubt it. Why?”

Willie makes an embarrassed face. “I wanna put candy in it, and he was telling me yesterday how much he hates when his friends ‘ruin the sanctity’ of his popcorn.”

Now Alex feels embarrassed, and a little annoyed. “Ah. He was talking about me and Julie. We put M&Ms in it, and he hates it so much.”

Willie’s face lights up. “Peanut M&Ms?” He bounces on his toes when Alex nods. “Dude, that’s what I was gonna do,” he reaches out, bumps the backs of his fingers against Alex’s bicep, and withdraws to put his hand in his pocket. “Hey so. Wanna share a bucket, then?”

And Alex, like a moron, says yes.

~

Willie doesn’t understand this guy.

Outside, he was almost positive that Alex had been checking him out, too.

But ever since Reggie came up, he’s been getting stonewalled by him.

And he’s deeply thrilled when Alex says yes to sharing popcorn with him, because maybe it means that Alex is just shy when his friends are around, witnessing him having normal human reactions or something.

And yes, he’s absolutely going to use this as an excuse to brush hands with Alex during the movie, sue him.

~

Two large sodas in hand and a glass bottle of Coke tucked under his arm for Reggie, Alex is tempted to dump all of them straight into the lap of the guy who used to be his favorite bassist in the whole world.

Because Reggie did indeed find them seats, but he clearly didn’t think this through. Because he’s sat himself at the end of the three seats, and while he’d taken Alex’s jacket with him earlier to save the others, he’s put it in the middle, which puts Willie on Alex’s left, and Reggie to his right.

Personally, if Alex had been trying to get time with his crush by inviting him to the movies, he would have made sure to actually _sit by said crush_ but whatever, Reggie’s kind of a dope, so what.

It works out this way anyway, since he and Willie are sharing a popcorn bucket, he guesses, and wasn’t that just a whole new can of worms?

Willie’s been juggling two different popcorn buckets, tucked between his chest and his arm so he can carry his board into the theater, his helmet dangling by its strap from his wrist. It's been kind of impressive to watch, and Alex is weirdly disappointed when he drops his board under his seat to free his hand.

Willie reaches past him to hand Reggie the small popcorn they’d ordered for him, and the bag of sour gummy worms from the pocket of Willie’s hoodie. Alex sets down the drinks into the cupholders, and gives Reggie the Coke.

Reggie has a weird look on his face as both of them sit down, and it turns into complete and utter betrayal as Willie takes out the yellow bag of M&Ms.

“Disgusting,” he mutters. “Desecration of a sacred snack. You’re both monsters.”

And Alex feels a little pang of guilt in his chest.

It gets worse as the movie plays, every time Willie’s fingers brush against his in the confines of the bucket, and eventually, Alex stops reaching for the popcorn altogether.

He can’t.

He _can’t._

~

And suddenly, Willie is everywhere.

Reggie invites him bowling, and to the throwback arcade, and to the boardwalk, and it feels like he’s suddenly unavoidable.

Alex is ready to tear his hair out.

Because that stupid initial first attraction? Has not faded. Has gotten much, _much_ worse, in fact.

Willie is funny, and smart, and he’s incredibly nice, and when he meets Julie and Luke, he slots seamlessly into their group like he’s always been there. And that’s worse because not only does this pretty pretty skater boy surf like Reggie, it turns out he can noodle around on a guitar like Luke, _and_ wasn’t shy about humming a few bars with Julie. There’s no shortage of things in common to talk about with him.

He’s practically perfect.

Which would be _great_ if Alex was dating him, because he gets along so well with Alex’s friends that it’s ridiculous.

But he’s not dating him, because Reggie liked him first, and while Reggie is doing an absolutely _shit-tastic_ job of acting on that, Alex loves his friend too much to act on his own crush.

Reggie keeps leaving him with Willie, too, and Alex really loves that Reggie trusts him so much, but by god, if he has to blank-face react to any more of Willie’s blatant flirting to shut the guy down, he thinks he might actually explode.

Listen, when a cute surfer calls you Ocean Eyes to your face, you try not to lose your cool and see how well you do.

He’s going to lose his mind.

~

Willie is going to lose his mind.

Alex is just.

He’s too cute.

He’s all tall and funny and when he feels confident he walks with the same air he had when Willie had seen him behind his kit that one time, flying high and free.

God, that’d been a good day, when Reggie had invited him to watch them play in the studio. He’s pretty sure that Julie knew exactly where his eyes had been glued the whole song when she’d asked what he’d thought of the lyrics with that mischievous grin on her face.

But Alex gives him the biggest mixed signals in the world, and he doesn’t want to cross any boundaries and ruin what they’ve got, what he’s got with this whole friend group now.

Reggie slicks back his sopping hair and pulls his leg onto his board to adjust the velcro on his ankle. Willie squints at him as the sun reflects off the water like glass.

“Nah man. He likes you, a lot. Trust me,” Reggie says, the ripping noise of the velcro undercutting his words. “I don’t know why he’s being so weird. He keeps giving me these apologetic looks lately. It’s like someone told off a golden retriever for peeing on the carpet.”

And Willie laughs as Reggie paddles out.

~

They go thrifting.

Which really means ducking into Julie’s favorite weird warehouse emporium of cursed objects, oddities, and knick knacks downtown.

They lose her and Luke somewhere in the records, and Reggie disappears into the clothing racks. He lost Willie near the books, but when Alex looks back, he’s gone.

There’s a massive assortment of old sports gear, and he wonders if he should try to replace the hockey stick he’s been using since seventh grade. There’s a barrel full of junky vintage skis, and several bins of deflated soccer balls.

Just soccer balls.

This place was Like That.

There’s a couple of hockey sticks shoved into a stand with old broken tennis rackets, and he works on digging them out for a minute, the grime and dust of age and disuse coating his hands and making them grey.

“Look at that,”

He jumps, nearly knocking down the whole stand. Willie, who he’s never thought of as a quiet person, has appeared next to him, and he’s staring at something on the wall behind Alex.

The awe on his face makes Alex pause; his brain feels like it’s gone slack.

Whatever has caught Willie’s attention has his entire interest, and Alex can’t help but study the curve of his cheek, the slope of his nose while he’s distracted. He can’t help it.

And he knows it’s wrong.

When he glances back, he can see why Willie’s been so thoroughly entranced.

It’s a vintage surfboard, cream and yellow with faded burgundy stripes, in near perfect condition. Honestly, it’s amazing that it escaped his notice when he’d ventured over here, but then, he’s not a surfer. It’s strapped to the wall like a display, but there’s a price tag taped to the edge of it.

It’s pricey, is all Alex can think. But he can see Willie’s fascination with it.

His heart aches in his chest.

He forgets about the hockey stick.

~

Reggie is starting to wonder if maybe Alex is a lot shyer than he’d ever known. He keeps giving him the perfect opportunity to ask out Willie, and Alex keeps fumbling the ball. Or at least, dropping it entirely.

Like. It’s so bad, he’s starting to wonder if Alex is doing it on purpose.

You spend your entire life growing up with someone, you think you have them figured out. Apparently not, he thinks as he watches Alex stare at Willie from his vantage point behind a rack of old bomber jackets.

“They’re killing me,” Luke says near his shoulder, the jackets shifting to accommodate him.

“God, same,” Julie says from where she’s crouched by Reggie’s calf to spy from under the rack.

Reggie rolls his eyes. “Look, I don’t wanna hear anything out of you two. It took me three months to get you to tell Julie you liked her, and it shouldn’t have to have involved so many dogs. Comparatively, they’re doing better than you.”

~

Alex has dinner with his parents that night.

It goes as well as can be expected.

The table spans between them like a chasm, and his dad drones on about...well, Alex isn’t sure, but he definitely heard the words “stock portfolio” in there somewhere. His mother cuts into her slab of meatloaf primly, listening intently to her husband, and his sister keeps knocking her foot against his when he zones out.

And he can’t help that he keeps zoning out, because he’s thinking about how bad Willie had been at bowling last week and how little he’d seemed to care about it, laughing off every gutterball with a toss of his head and his hair and how distracting that had been when Alex had gone up next and immediately sunk his own straight into the side of the lane and Reggie had ribbed him about needing the bumpers up like when they were six and how Willie had asked them about growing up together and was genuinely interested and had giggled when Alex told him the story about Reggie and Luke and the neighbor’s cat and the sprinklers and how all of them had ended up in the tree at the end of the ordeal and his eyes had lit up with his attention focused solely on Alex and his gesturing hands and how much Alex liked the way Willie was looking at him even as Reggie came back from his perfect strike and guilt hung heavy in his chest-

“Alex dear,” his mother says, her lipsticked mouth just starting to feather at the edges. He jumps, and so does Mel. Dread spreads through his stomach like ice. He knows exactly what’s coming next. Mel’s fingers find his sleeve under the table and tug in reassurance.

“The Prescotts just moved into that charming house at the end of the block, and I went over to bring them a casserole this afternoon. Their lovely daughter Sidney answered the door. I think you might like her.”

And there it is.

His mother will swear blind that she has no problem with the fact that he’s gay, and on the outside, it almost looks that way. But she’s gotten into this _interesting_ habit of introducing him to every girl in a two mile radius.

Alex grinds his teeth and wads up his napkin. “I’m sure she’s just peachy, mom,” he takes a deep breath through his nose, and gestures to his plate. “I’m not very hungry tonight. May I be excused?”

He doesn’t give any of them time to answer, and he can’t take Mel’s sympathetic eyes on his back as he takes his plate to the kitchen to slide the meatloaf into a tupperware and put it in the fridge.

He doesn’t ask to leave, but he grabs his fanny pack off the coat rack and pulls the front door shut quietly behind him.

Hands tucked into his hoodie pocket and hunched in on himself, he walks, sneakers slapping the pavement in the evening sunlight. It’ll be getting dark soon, but he doesn’t really care, winding his way out of his neighborhood and following wherever his feet lead him.

The streetlights are starting to flicker on when he finds a park, and sits down on the swings. He stretches his legs out in front of him, heels digging into the dirt worn away by hundreds of other shoes, and listens to the chains clink together.

Alex breathes.

Maybe he’ll make his way down to the studio, crash on the couch like Reggie does sometimes. If he gets caught by Ray in the morning he’ll just say he didn’t want to bother the Molinas during dinner, and Ray will ruffle his hair and tell him he’s never a bother like he always does for Reggie when his parents are fighting and maybe Ray will make him breakfast. Carlos will beg him for drum lessons and Ray will beg him not to do it, and Luke will eventually show up looking like a sleepy squirrel who should have slept in more but who couldn’t stand to be away from Julie for a full twelve hours and Ray will pat Luke on the shoulder too and Reggie will show up and they can all have a nice songwriting session tomorrow.

An ideal day, honestly.

But instead he just swings back and forth, because getting up is so much effort and walking is so much effort, and really he just wants to sit for awhile.

Something shifts in his fanny pack and it sounds like pills rolling around, but he knows that can’t be right because he definitely has a good cap on his bottle of Tylenol. Alex unzips it carefully, and sticks his hand in, coming up with a fistful of red jelly beans.

Oh.

Those.

Julie had bought them for him on the way home that afternoon, ducking into one of her hole-in-the-wall haunts and returning before any of them could notice she’d snuck away into a candy store without them.

She’d handed him the little baggie of cinnamon jelly beans with a smile that had more sympathy in it than he thought it should have. There was no way that Julie could know about his guilt over how much he liked Reggie’s crush, right?

Because he’s just absolutely completely subtle about how much he likes Willie’s company and how he can’t help looking at him, right?

Right.

The baggie must have opened in his fanny pack. He sighs, and sets to work scooping them out of the crevices and seams and back into their proper bag. He pops some into his mouth, chews, and as the cinnamon burns across his tongue, he thinks about the little ways people tell each other they care.

Cinnamon jelly beans are his favorite kind, and he knows that Julie went out of her way to get them for him, had noticed him feeling down as they weaved through the thrift store, probably noticed the way he couldn’t stop his eyes from straying to Willie all afternoon.

He thinks about the way Luke slung his arm over his shoulders in some sort of half-hug as Willie skated away from them earlier with a wave and a look that Alex hopes Reggie didn’t see.

He thinks about the way that Reggie turned to him with a smile and bright eyes as he asked if it would be okay to invite Willie to their gig next week. He’d wrapped his own arm around Alex’s waist and squeezed when Alex had said, sure, why not, and that stupid guilt clawed its way up Alex’s ribs and into his throat.

He jumps as a hand waves in front of his face.

“-lex, hey, you in there?”

He blinks, and speak of the devil.

Willie’s there in front of him, his brows furrowed with concern as he looks down at Alex on the swing with a handful of jelly beans he’s been staring blankly at for who even knew how long.

He’s got his hair pulled back now, but the tie is coming loose, wisps of soft brown hair framing his face and lit up from behind in the streetlights and the fading sun.

Alex’s heart thuds in his chest like a snare.

Willie gestures to the swing next to him like a question, asking for permission. Alex shrugs and Willie takes that as a yes, setting his skateboard down by the support pole of the swingset and dropping onto the cracking rubber seat next to Alex.

The chain links clink like windchimes, and Willie says nothing.

“My mom keeps trying to set me up with girls,” Alex blurts out, the hand he’s holding the candy with starting to shake. Red jelly beans bounce to the ground under his feet. “She says she’s okay with me being gay, but she’s _not_ and my dad keeps asking if I’m ‘still doing that band thing’ and I just. I don’t know,” tears prick at his eyes and he stares at the toes of his sneakers. “I’m tired.”

Willie’s hand rests against his bicep, hesitantly, like he isn’t sure Alex wants it there. When Alex doesn’t shake him off, he presses a bit, rubbing his thumb over the fabric of Alex’s hoodie comfortingly.

“I’m sorry, ‘lex.” He says sincerely, and Alex closes his eyes.

~

Willie’s heart is breaking for this beautiful boy in front of him, with his pained eyes and his slumped shoulders. He’d been looking at those red jelly beans in his hand like they held the answers to life and the universe when Willie had spotted him on his way by.

He’s thought since he met him that the line about eyes like the sea after a storm was perfect for Alex.

 _Well,_ he thinks sadly, _here’s the storm._

~

Willie is looking at him when he opens his eyes again, and he feels a little bit better even just saying all of it out loud.

But Willie didn’t ask for any of that, and he definitely didn’t deserve all of Alex’s anxieties and problems dumped on him that way, and now Alex feels embarrassed more than anything.

Something about Willie just makes him want to spill his guts, but that’s Alex’s problem to deal with, not his.

“Sorry,” he murmurs, staring down at the jelly beans again. They’ve started to go sticky from the heat of his palm. “You didn’t ask for my life story.”

Willie shrugs, rocks back and forth on the swing with his legs out, those wildflowers on his calf bright even in the fading light. “I’ve been told I’m good for when you need someone to listen,” he says lightly. “And from the looks of it, you needed someone. I don’t mind.”

Willie smiles at him kindly and Alex can physically feel the blush travel up his face.

“However,” Willie continues, something in his voice turning mischievous. “I do have a fee for that listening ear of mine,” he says.

Alex raises an eyebrow, his lips quirking as he tries not to smile right back at him. “Yeah? What’s that?”

“Those!” Willie snatches the jelly beans out of Alex’s hand before he can react. And before he can warn him that they’re tacky sticky _gross_ from sitting in his hand for so long, Willie pops one in his mouth. “Ooh, cinnamon?”

Alex stares at him, mouth agape. “...you took...my jelly beans,” he says, laying on the offense thick in his voice. “Julie bought me those...and you just. Took them.”

Willie grins at him, chewing on another candy, and the mischievous look on his face morphs into something else, something sharper. 

Something _flirty._

“Come get ‘em, then,” he says, taunting in a way that gets up under Alex’s skin and makes his brain frizz out.

He doesn’t know exactly what makes him do it, but that look on Willie’s face and the way he keeps popping his stolen jelly beans into that smug mouth of his, Alex doesn’t think.

He’s tackled him off the swing before his brain can comprehend what he’s done, one hand wrapped around Willie’s wrist to try to grab the candy back while he pushes down on Willie’s chest with the other, wrestling him to the ground the way he would Reggie or Luke.

But the thing is.

Alex has _never_ won the playfighting game.

Ever.

And this is no exception.

And this was definitely a _mistake_ , he realizes with Willie’s knees on either side of his hips and Willie’s hands pinning his shoulders to the grass, the stolen jelly beans long forgotten in their scuffle.

His chest is heaving, and Willie’s face is suddenly _right there right there_ and he doesn’t know who moves first but one second he’s staring into those deep dark eyes, and the next he’s got Willie’s lips pressed to his own and his fingers tangled in the hair at the base of Willie’s neck and Willie’s mouth tastes like cinnamon and it’s making Alex’s lips tingle and-

God.

Could his brain just _shut up_ for once and let him enjoy the moment?

No, of course it couldn’t, because as Willie shifts to get a better angle against his mouth, reality comes crashing back into Alex’s head like a truck.

He can’t.

He _can’t._

Oh, but he wants to, so _so_ badly.

But the way he knows this will break Reggie’s heart-

He just.

_no._

It kills him to do it, but he shoves Willie off of him. He tries to do it gently, but the reality is that he has to do it like ripping off a bandaid, or he knows he’s gonna sink right back in.

The hurt on Willie’s face as Alex scrambles to his feet and takes off into the darkness haunts the forefront of his mind the whole run to the studio.

~

Willie sits in the grass.

His lips burn.

Like cinnamon. Like _Alex._

~

Alex bursts into the studio like a bat out of hell, out of breath and tears streaming from his face.

Reggie’s first thought is that something very bad went down with his parents. His second thought is that he can’t breathe.

Alex has his arms wrapped so tightly around him, so suddenly, it knocks all the wind out of Reggie’s lungs. It’s like being hit by a blonde freight train, because five years of hockey has made Alex _solid_. Reggie’s hands flail uselessly at his sides, gripping at the hem of Alex’s sweatshirt.

It takes him a minute to realize that Alex is muttering something into his shoulder, and it sounds so much like _imsorryimsorryimsorry_ that he can’t help but trade confused glances with Luke from his vantage point on the couch, curled up with Julie.

He gets one arm free and pets at Alex’s back. “Hey, what? Alex, you gotta breathe, c’mon, I don’t know what you’re apologizing for-”

“I kissed Willie,” Alex blurts into Reggie’s jacket. “I’m sorry.”

And okay, that makes everything clear as _mud_ , thank you Alex. But like, also, go Alex? Reggie knew he had it in him.

Reggie shakes his head. “I’m happy for you, ‘lex, but I still don’t know why you’re apologizing to me-”

“You liked him first!” Alex says, his arms winding impossibly tighter around Reggie. “You liked him first, and I tried so hard, man. I tried not to like him, but-”

Reggie blinks, trades another confused glance with Luke, and feels his eyebrows practically meet his hairline. “I did what now?”

“I’m sorry, Reg, I didn’t mean to hurt you, I just-”

“Alex,” he interrupts, not sure if he should laugh or cry. “I don’t like Willie. I’ve been trying to set _you_ up with him _for weeks_.”

It’s suddenly so quiet in the studio Reggie can hear the water in the pipes. Alex pulls back, his face horrifically blank with tear tracks drying tacky down his cheeks.

“You… _WHAT-_ ”

“Where did you get the idea that _I_ liked him, I was trying so hard to get you to meet him-”

“You were always talking about him and saying how cool he was and-”

“Yeah, to get you to meet him!”

Julie, who has been watching this exchange with an expression somewhere between amusement and exasperation, leans away from Luke and turns to face him. Her face morphs into horror. “Oh my god,” she breathes. “Luke, are _you_ the smart one?”

Luke makes a face. “That’s way too much pressure. I think you’re the smart one, Jules.”

She snuggles back into his side. “Fair.”

Alex buries his face in his hands, scrubbing at the tears still drying there as Reggie reaches out for him. “Fuck. Shit,” he hisses, and Reggie knows it’s really bad because Alex almost _never_ swears out loud, a habit formed from keeping himself from cursing in his parents’ house for so long.

He runs his hands up and down Alex’s arms, hoping for soothing. “Hey, c’mon, it can’t be that bad,” he says.

Alex peers out from between his fingers, the single eye that Reggie can see completely stony. “I shoved him. Like, _shoved_ him. While he was kissing me.”

Reggie winces and Luke makes a sympathetic noise. “Okay. Yeah, yikes. Um,” he snaps his fingers. “I’ll text him and ask him to meet me at the beach tomorrow. And you show up instead.”

Alex brings his hands down, and he looks vaguely green at the idea. “I guess…I just don’t think a pathetic little ‘I’m sorry’ is gonna cover it...” something lights up in his eyes, and the weight pressing down on Reggie’s heart eases just a bit. He can’t stand seeing his best friend so distressed, and to know he was a little bit the cause of it is gonna eat at him for a long time.

But for now, the spark returning to Alex’s eyes is enough to quiet that guilt, just a little.

“Reg,” he says, reaching out to grip Reggie’s jacket. “Can I borrow your truck?”

~

Alex swallows as he puts the truck in park.

His mouth is too dry, and he licks his bottom lip nervously.

He can see Willie waiting on the bench at the edge of the beach, and his heart breaks as he notes the way he’s curled into himself, his knees pressed to his chest with his arms around his shins.

He’s wearing a red and white sweatshirt, baggy like he wants to hide in it, and ripped jeans. It’s not exactly what anyone would wear if they were meeting their friend to go surfing, and Alex’s stomach sinks at the thought that Willie would end his friendship with Reggie over this, over _him._

Willie mostly unfurls himself as Alex approaches, setting his feet on the ground, but keeping his arms crossed protectively over his chest, his thumb tracing self-soothing circles into his own bicep.

“I knew this was a set up when Reggie texted,” Willie says. And what shoots Alex through the heart is that he doesn’t sound angry.

He just sounds _sad._

Alex sighs, runs a hand through his hair, and gestures to the space next to Willie on the bench. Willie doesn’t react, but he doesn’t get up when Alex sits down, either.

“So,” Alex says, his heart thundering in his ears. “It turns out that I’m a lot dumber than I thought I was.”

Willie raises his eyebrows in a _go on_ gesture, so he swallows again, and continues. “I thought Reggie had a crush on you, and I was trying to be a good friend,” he says, unable to stop the way he hangs his head in embarrassment. “He’s a better friend than I am, I guess, because I really failed at the whole, Don’t Crush On Your Friend’s Crush thing.”

Willie’s expression is amused. “You thought- _Reggie?_ Dude, he practically pulled a muscle trying to drag you out here to meet me.”

Alex tips his head back and scrubs at his eyes. “Yeah, I know that _now_ , but when your best friend won’t shut up about the hot guy he met at the beach, you see how your conclusions go, okay?”

Willie laughs, but Alex can see the blush rising to his cheeks. He tucks a lock of hair behind his ear shyly. “You think I’m hot?” He asks, looking at Alex from the corner of his eye.

“No, Reggie thinks you’re hot, I think you’re _gorgeous,_ ” Alex corrects before he can stop himself. Willie snorts and they both laugh, finally making eye contact as Willie looks at him entirely. “I’m so sorry about yesterday, Willie. It was a stupid misunderstanding, and it’s my fault for never actually asking Reggie.”

“It’s okay.”

They’re quiet for the longest time, but it doesn’t feel like a silence that needs to be filled. Willie uncrosses his arms and wipes his palms on the thighs of his jeans, and while Alex is pretty sure that Willie is about to go for his hand, he gets completely distracted by Willie’s sweatshirt.

There’s two deep pockets on either side of his chest, that take up half the shirt, and while normally Alex would be entirely consumed by the fact that Willie definitely wants to hold his hand, he can’t stop himself from reaching out and sticking his hand into the pocket closest to him. “What’s with the boob pockets, man- what the hell?” 

He pulls out a handful of Skittles.

A pink blush paints across Willie’s nose, all the way up to his ears and he ducks his head.

“You keep your Skittles in there?”

“Only today, and only the orange and yellow ones in that pocket,” Willie admits. “They’re for you. To make up for the jelly beans. You said orange and yellow were your favorite. Red and purple in this one for me, though.” he points at the other pocket, like he didn’t just shake up Alex’s world.

Because he’d mentioned his favorite Skittles _weeks ago_.

At the _arcade_.

Barely _in passing_.

He didn’t even know Willie had heard him when he’d asked Julie to split the bag with him and made some joke about how he didn’t understand how anyone could prefer fake grape over fake lemon.

“What about the green ones?” Alex asks, feeling lightheaded suddenly.

Willie makes a face. “Green is dead to me.”

He knows that he’s the one who moves first this time, because he drops the Skittles and they bounce to the ground around their feet as Alex presses his lips to Willie’s, his hands cupping his face like he can’t bear the thought of pulling away any time soon, and it’s true, he can’t, because this guy is just _ridiculous_ and Alex likes him _so much_.

They break apart, and Willie presses his forehead against Alex’s, breathing hard through his nose.

“As far as apologies go,” he murmurs, “that’s not bad.”

And Alex remembers the Other Thing. He pulls away entirely and Willie actually _whines_ at him.

He laughs, and tucks back a strand of Willie’s hair that’s fallen into his face. “Then this part might be a little overboard,” he admits, reaching out to grab Willie’s hand and tug him off the bench. He intertwines their fingers and pulls Willie behind him, towards the truck.

The sun is sitting high in the sky, bringing out the shine in Willie’s hair, and when Alex looks back at him, he nearly loses his train of thought again. It’s only when he nearly slams into Reggie’s Chevy that he remembers what his point here was.

“Please don’t freak out,” he says, dropping Willie’s hand as he hikes one foot onto the tire and pushes himself into the bed of the truck. “I kind of panicked and didn’t know if you’d even speak to me again, and...well.”

He pulls up the surfboard from the store, half wrapped in an old bedsheet to protect it from the grime of Reggie’s truck.

He shifts nervously as Willie’s face is curiously blank. He tilts his head to the side, squinting at Alex. Studying him. Alex’s heart hammers against his ribs and he knew this was a bad idea, he knew it, but it was the only idea he had at the time and he wasn’t going to be able to take it if Willie never wanted to see him again and he at least wanted to get him something nice to make up for it and oh Willie’s climbed up into the truck in front of him, fingers brushing the wax coating of the surfboard reverently.

He can’t stop the way he babbles. “I know it’s kind of a lot, and we aren’t even like this serious yet, but like I said, I panicked, and I knew you really liked the board and-”

“Alex,” Willie interrupts, sounding very far way.

Alex chews on his bottom lip. “Yeah?”

Willie doesn’t answer, one hand keeping the board from falling and the other on Alex’s face as he goes in for a deep kiss, head tilted for the best angle possible. There’s a murmured _thank you_ against Alex’s mouth and between that and the sun on his back and the way Willie leans the board against the cab of the truck without breaking away from him, freeing up his other hand and wrapping both arms around Alex’s neck, Alex doesn’t really care about much else.

Not about his parents and their stupid opinions on him, not about the fact that everyone on the beach can see them, standing here in the bed of Reggie’s truck, and not about the fact that he still feels like the biggest moron on the planet.

He only cares about how _right_ this is, like something that’s been spinning loose in his chest for weeks has finally clicked into place.

Willie pulls away first, and Alex keeps his eyes closed, not ready to leave the moment. “You know this means I have to teach you to surf, right?”

Alex’s eyes snap open. “Absolutely not.”

And Willie’s laugh is the sweetest thing he thinks he’ll ever hear.

**Author's Note:**

> hi yes hello i've edited nothing im just too excited to have something to post
> 
> i threw every dumbfuck idea that's crossed my mind in the past couple weeks into a blender and this poured out. candy thief surfer willie, hockey alex, playfighting willex, some dumbass misunderstandings, you know how it goes-
> 
> i hope you liked it pls comment if you did!


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